Everyday life in the GDR

Photographs from the 1980s by Mahmoud Dabdoub

Alltag in der DDR, 1985 im Zug von Berlin nach Leipzig – Alltag in der DDR, 1985 im Zug von Berlin nach Leipzig © Stiftung Berliner Mauer, Fotograf: Mahmoud Dabdoub

Mahmoud Dabdoub's pictures are everyday and street photographs of a world that no longer exists today. Dabdoub came to the GDR from Lebanon in 1981 and studied photography at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig. In the following five years, he shot around 1,500 films.

His snapshots are characterized by the immediacy of his observations of everyday events. The surprising motifs often place people in the foreground. Mountains of tires and children playing, joie de vivre and decaying old buildings, vacation scenes and backbreaking work document life in the GDR from an intimate perspective.

Mahmoud Dabdoub was born into a Palestinian family in Lebanon in 1958. His photographs were shown in exhibitions from his first year at university. in 1988, his diploma exhibition from Leipzig was also shown in Cologne. As a foreign student, he was able to cross the GDR border into the West. Since 1988, Mahmoud Dabdoub has worked as a freelance photographer, followed by further exhibitions in Germany and abroad. In 2003, he published his first volume of photographs from his student years under the title "Everyday Life in the GDR". The second volume appeared in June 2024 under the same title.

Translated with DeepL

Runtime: Thu, 13/06/2024 to Sun, 15/09/2024

Takes place here:

• Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer